Barren Earth beats Triptykon for best debut album by a single vote! I wonder if the same has happened before in any category...

Makes me feel kinda important when I think that I was torn between both and ended up voting for Barren Earth.

Tommy G's effort was really good but the Finns just put out such a damned entertaining album... heck, I'm torn even now.

Seems to me like a lot of people voting for favorite bands regardless of the quality of the output.

Written by Risto on 01.03.2011 at 00:12

Barren Earth beats Triptykon for best debut album by a single vote! I wonder if the same has happened before in any category...

Check Kamelot vs Nightwish in 2007 Power Metal

Written by BrutalN00dle on 01.03.2011 at 00:24

Seems to me like a lot of people voting for favorite bands regardless of the quality of the output.

Yeah, looks like it on some parts. "We Are the Void" winning the Gothenburg award speaks for itself. Luckily that genre will have huge quality this year.

I'm personally very disappointed with Les Discrets not winning an award this year. Not to mention that Kylesa (whose video I voted for, too) also deserved to win. It's quite impressive.

Besides, how the fuck could Tristania win in the "Best Gothic Metal Album" category?! "Rubicon" sucks really hard. I should have voted for it as biggest letdown of the year but I simply forgot.

Also a highlight: Ihsahn's after being #3 in prog metal as a write-in vote. I was surprised not seeing this album among the nominees anyway.

Written by shadowdragonfly1 on 01.03.2011 at 00:32

Also a highlight: Ihsahn's after being #3 in prog metal as a write-in vote. I was surprised not seeing this album among the nominees anyway.

well it was really close, but it didn't make the cut of our selection by a very small margin... Anyway, I think it's the first time a write-in vote gets so high, and seeing the quality of "After", I won't complain

Before I go to bed.. Here are my two cents:

- Alternative Metal: Anathema was a HUGE dissapointment (I voted for them in the letdown category).
- Black Metal: Meh... Never been an Enslaved fan, they are good I guess... They won for the popularity and I can't get mad at that.
- Death Metal: I got this one right
- Doom Metal: This one as well... So happy they won the award they didn't get thanks to Virgin Black's fanboys...
- Extreme Doom Metal: I barely payed attention to the winner when I was listening to their myspace. it seemed so normal in comparison to Fungoid Stream that was just weird and horrible (in a good way)
- Hardcore/Metalcore/Deathcore: No hard feelings here, I like HSB although I didn't vote for them, good for them though
- Industrial Metal: Oh boy did I got this one wrong in terms of guessing (voted for Project Failing Flesh)
- Post/avatgarde: Got this one right, I'm adicted to Alcest's second album, I almost feel like it's better than their debut
- Sludge/Stoner: I was a bit sad since I really wanted Kylesa to win, but they got second so that's still very good for them!
- Best cover: Björk's cover was amazing and there's no palce for discussion.. How that song was re-made and sounded so brutal in the ending... it deserved to win.
- Best debut: Just one word: AKELEI
- Letdown: Once again: Anathema...
- Best video: seriously guys... Most of those videos were so fucking serious and pretentious. over The Top just mocked all of them!


CYA NEXT YEAR!

No surprises as Fear Factory win the Industrial category by a huge margin, and Noctiferia is a distant second. Personally, I disliked those two albums so much that I don't even consider them to be worth downloading, let alone buying, but then again it's just my taste, obviously not shared by others. It seems that hardly anyone actually bothers to at least check out the nominated albums. Oh well, at least Killing Joke ended up in third. And how the hell did Todtgelichter and Year Of No Light end up at the bottom in the Post/Avangarde?!

Written by Øyvind on 01.03.2011 at 00:45

And how the hell did Todtgelichter and Year Of No Light end up at the bottom in the Post/Avangarde?!

not enough people bothered to check them out. amusingly i cast my vote for one of those two... and as of last night, after further listens, would have given it to the other.

Quite content (but also surprised) that Orphaned Land won the Prog Category. I had it pegged on Arjen's latest offering.

That said, no Ihsahn among the nominees was a serious "what the heck?". Many of the nominees there were just so bland and sugary coated.. makes me wonder how the hell did the staff ever end up excluding 'After' from the lot.

@ Øyvind: So far, I haven't managed to get into Year Of No Light. As for Todtgelichter, I did like them but their album simply couldn't compare with the emotionality and beauty of Les Discrets' music.

Blind Guardian and Opeth took their awards, I'm happy with that. Thanks to Wintersun, there was no way Kamelot could have won biggest disappointment, but I am glad they got as many votes as they did, fucking lazy let's-put-no-effort-into-this-piece-of-shit-poetry-from-the-boyzone bastards.

Yay Agalloch won. And Hail of Bullets got second. Also a bit sad to see Star One only in second place.

It's not been a super great year in my view, but those 3 albums kicked my ass. Especially Hail Of Bullets \m/

Written by Elodie Artour on 01.03.2011 at 00:31

I'm personally very disappointed with Les Discrets not winning an award this year. Not to mention that Kylesa (whose video I voted for, too) also deserved to win. It's quite impressive.

Besides, how the fuck could Tristania win in the "Best Gothic Metal Album" category?! "Rubicon" sucks really hard. I should have voted for it as biggest letdown of the year but I simply forgot.

and here the whiners start again....

@Marcel: What else have you expected of me? I'm a constand whiner, remember?

All I've written is the naked truth.

I'm pretty satisfied with the results overall I voted.

Alternative Metal: Anathema, I like Anathema but in the end I went for Grey Waters - Below The Ever Setting Sun, that ep sounds really promising and has way more originality than Anathema's latest. We're Here Because We're Here was pretty good nevertheless.

Black metal: Was a pretty tough choice for me, in the end I went for A Forest of Stars. Enslaved's Axioma Ethica Odini is damn good album to so no complain for them taking prise. honourable mentions: Agrypnie - 16[485], Nachtmystium - Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. 2, October Falls - A Collapse Of Faith

Doom Metal: Mar De Grises fully deserved it, the rest of the albums didn't come close. Helevorn's Forthcoming Displeasures was the only release coming a bit close.

Extreme Doom Metal: was doubting between Remembrance and Celestiial, in the end I went for Remembrance and it's quite a nice surprise seeing it actually won it. I though Ophis would win it and I don't like Ophis at all, makes the result more sweet.

Gothic Metal: this is the only stinker for me. The Gothic Metal section was the hardest for me to pick there was so much quality to choose from, in fact the only bad one is Tristania - Rubicon lol. I kinda hoped since it was slacked and panned by the fans that it wouldn't win it. O well there is some bright side about it, The Foreshadowing became second and it was my pick to and it's good to see so many people liked it despite The Foreshadowing being not a popular band. Other honourable mentions Mandrake - Innocence Weakness, Nightfall - Astron Black And The Thirty Tyrants, Soulgrind - The Tuoni Pathway, The Man-Eating Tree - Vine, Darkseed - Poison Awaits, Throes Of Dawn - The Great Fleet Of Echoes.

Industrial Metal: I knew Fear Factory would win it, I also have to admit I didn't check them out as I'm not in the modo for them. My pick was Unheilig Grosse Freiheit but I also really loved The Young Gods Everybody Knows.

Folk Metal: Agalloch deserved to win the only other contender for me was Finntrol's latest. Árstíðir Lífsins is a promsing newcomer however.

Post metal: Lot's of great releases here but yet it was an easy choice for me. I voted for Alcest as I have a really soft spot for shoegaze dreamy music, Les Discrets is awesome as well. Honourable mentions: Rosetta - A Determinism Of Morality, Shining [NOR] - Blackjazz, Sigh - Scenes From Hell, Todtgelichter - Angst, Transcending Bizarre? - The Misanthrope's Fable, Year Of No Light - Ausserwelt.

The best Debut Album: I didn't vote for either catergories lol, I voted for Les Discrets.

The Biggest Letdown: I laugh at the Wintersun fanboys yet find them so pathetic. How creepily obsessed can you get with a band? I wish they moved on and do something with their lives and find better bands. I voted for Mortiis - Perfectly Defect, I'm a Mortiis fan and I will always defend them but this is really hard to defend... The album is experimental without purpose, it never becomes really anything solid it's just a mess. There are some nice bits here and there but not enough.

Props to the staff by the way, the awards this year are so much better then last year.

Pretty good year. Most of my picks won. I think the Wintersun - Time disappointment is a little silly. If that was the most disappointing thing in metal last year you were A) Focusing too much attention to that band and B) Your narrow scope of metal kept you from hearing some of true disappointments of last year. Sorry to see Kvelertak wasn't the best debut. At least they were the most original out of the top three Another year, another awards and hopefully more voters next year!

Ther are 2 things that eat at me most:
Thrash: I highly expected Overkill to win with Ironbound. The fact that Nevermore won just blindsided me.
DVD: Opeth's good, but the Big 4 DVD is fucking history.

Deathspell Omega not winning best Black Album... :-(

Written by Guest on 01.03.2011 at 02:12

Pretty good year. Most of my picks won. I think the Wintersun - Time disappointment is a little silly. If that was the most disappointing thing in metal last year you were A) Focusing too much attention to that band and B) Your narrow scope of metal kept you from hearing some of true disappointments of last year. Sorry to see Kvelertak wasn't the best debut. At least they were the most original out of the top three Another year, another awards and hopefully more voters next year!

i agree. part of it was just a pile on. "let's make fun of wintersun!". i think disappointments should be limited to actual albums released.

Dear MS staff and users. Thank you for the time that you've spent on here, broadening my horizons in music, whether directly or indirectly. When I first registered here in 2009, I only voted in the Power Metal category. Two years from now, I voted in 16, excluding debut, letdown and Clandestine. I am a happy man (=
-----------------------I am a division line----------------------------
I'm just gonna share my thoughts on the votes that I've made... In case someone wants to read it XD May sound a bit whiny, but whatever... I need an exit lol
Alternative - Grey Waters. It was a no brainer choice for me as I just thought the freshness was head and shoulders above everything else in the category. Destrage was quite good actually, and Imicus grew on me quite a bit as the month progressed. Thank you staff for accepting my nomination.

Black - Agrypnie. This was tough really... I loved A Forest Of Stars, Enslaved, Deathspell Omega (all of which I rated 9), and October Falls and Nachtmystium are not far behind either! Chose Agrypnie simply because I can't choose, so I voted for the one that I figured would have less votes A shame that I did not have too much time to listen to Murder Of Jesus The Jew properly though...

Death - Demiurg. relatively sugar coated compared to the others (bar Hail Of Bullets), but it really is great, hence I had a hard time choosing b/w it and Hail Of Bullets and Fleshgod! Fleshgod apocalypse was a "discovery" for me as I tend to ignore EPs and I did not find Oracles that amazing But Mafia was fab :3

Doom - Mar De Grises. They deserve it... especially after last time. I've discovered Mourning Lenore though, and it's such an amazing album Place of Skulls was great too!

Extreme Doom - The NULLL Collective. Didn't think I would vote in this category as I'm not into it at all, but when I saw I've already listened to 3 albums already, why not try something new? Remembrance was certainly a nice album, but doesn't come across as special as say, Fungoid Stream or Cebren-Khal. I chose The NULLL Collective in the end simply because. I even bought a physical copy from the band after being shaken head to toe by it.

Gothic - Soulgrind. Discovered through the awards, never heard of the band even being mentioned before, but this album is a clear winner from the rest definitely. Because the rest were pretty weak entries, especially the winner imho. Nightfall and Lacrimose Profundere were pretty good, Darkseed and the Vision Bleak were rather average, Mandrake was inconsistent, Throes of Dawn's Great Fleet Of Echoes is nothing compared to Quicksilver Clouds )= Also, where's Dark The Suns? They were way better than say, the winner

Metalcore - Heaven Shall Burn. I liked it so much I wrote a review for it Admittedly, I should not have voted for this category, because I have not heard all the entries Other than HSB, I've only listened to Knut, Parkway Drive, Ion Dissonance and Madball. Parkway Drive was certainly the weakest...

Heavy - Ghost. Another one discovered via the awards <3 There are other retro stuff in this dinosaur of a category, including Striker and Enforcer, but Ghost just sounds way superior to me while the others sound very samey. Dream evil was pretty average, Volbeat I had no idea how it even got nominated Grand Magus and Rage were my other considerations (= Slough Feg are really stingy with their tracks on myspace.... seriously, 30 seconds???

Industrial - Fear Factory. I voted for the main winner, because I like it. I always find myself listening to the album again at sporadic times (= Absolute Dissent grew a bit old on me for some reason even though I liked it a lot when it first came out. Rather annoyed that I still can't find a good quality download of Project Failing Flesh =/

Gothenburg/melo death - In Mourning. Great album, lot's of replay value for me (= Barren Earth, Kalmah, Burden Of Grief and System Divide all did a good job though. The absence started off really nicely, but the quality just went down lol

Post / Avantgarde - Todtgelichter. super tough to choose! Alcest, Shining and Year Of No Light were all great in their own way (= Rosetta, Transcending Bizarre and Les Discrets can hold their own very well too. Don't really get Yakuza, sadly =/

Power - Seven Kingdoms. Again, found it out through the awards. How come so little votes??? Before I listened to it, I though I would definitely be voting for helloween, obviously, my mind changed by even cooler music!

Progressive - Haken. Easily the most eclectic among the nominees in Prog. Aspera is just pretty bland prog for me, nothing special. Not too sure about District 97; Echoes was good, but not that good; Kingcrow was great actually, especially the opening and closer, but the middle was not as captivating; Klone as a bit mono even though I enjoyed it a lot; Mekong Delta was a massive let down for me actually...; Shaolin Deathsquad was a great surprise and I expect a more refined album next time; Star One played it on the safe side, but the melodies are really really good, almost voted for them

Sludge / Stoner - Kylesa. was a great fan of static tensions already, and they've upped their game somehow Eibon and Ufomammut were the only two other ones that I enjoyed a lot from the category. Almost voted for Eibon, but changed my mind in the end because Kylesa is just more memorable

Symphonic - Edenbridge. Kinda sad really. I used to like this sub-genre so much and now I find even the best of the crop bland and uninspiring... But at least it made the voting easy for me as Edenbridge really have outdone themselves with this one!

Thrash - Flotsam And Jetsam. The least thrashy of all But my firm favourite. Okay, Sodom came close, then Witchery. Overkill and Exodus were all too long despite great individual songs. Death Angel was another let down for me as I loved Art Of Dying and Killing Season )= Don't know what it's doing up there. Musica Diablo is so much better!

- I voted in all categories less Doom Metal, Extreme Doom Metal, Grindcore and The Biggest Letdown, and only i have guessed right in =):

Industrial Metal: Fear Factory - Mechanize
Power Metal: Blind Guardian - At The Edge Of Time
Sludge/Stoner Metal: High On Fire - Snakes For The Divine

- I didn't expect so bad positions for :

Heavy Metal: Slough Feg - The Animal Spirits (Position 10/12)
Industrial Metal: Synthetic Breed - Perpetual Motion Machine (Last position 8/8)
Pagan/Viking/Folk Metal: Bran Barr - Sidh (Position 8/9)
Power Metal: Seven Kingdoms - Seven Kingdoms (Position 10/11)

- I'm content to see at least in the final lists:

Symphonic Metal: Dark Moor - Ancestral Romance
Thrash Metal: Angelus Apatrida - Clockwork
Also i had liked to see this great album Ancient Bards - The Alliance Of The Kings in some category like for example The Best Debut Album.

- Is nice to see interesting things like (haha):

The Best Heavy Metal Album: Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier (write-in vote) (Position 8/12) // The Biggest Letdown: Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier (Position 2/10).
The Best Power Metal Album: Kamelot - Poetry For The Poisoned (Position 3/11) // The Biggest Letdown: Kamelot - Poetry For The Poisoned (Position 3/10).
The Best Symphonic Metal Album: Therion - Sitra Ahra (Winner 1/12) // The Biggest Letdown: Therion - Sitra Ahra (Position 6/10).
The Biggest Surprise: Dimmu Borgir - Abrahadabra (Position 2/10) // The Biggest Letdown: Dimmu Borgir - Abrahadabra (Position 4/10).

- And finally, thanks to this Metal Storm Awards 2010 i have discovered these fantastic albums/bands: Slough Feg - The Animal Spirits, Bran Barr - Sidh, Ancient Bards - The Alliance Of The Kings.

Stupid F**king fanboys! Anathema's album was the worst of the alt genre and how did it get 500 votes??????????

Written by Darkside Momo on 01.03.2011 at 00:35

Written by shadowdragonfly1 on 01.03.2011 at 00:32

Also a highlight: Ihsahn's after being #3 in prog metal as a write-in vote. I was surprised not seeing this album among the nominees anyway.

well it was really close, but it didn't make the cut of our selection by a very small margin... Anyway, I think it's the first time a write-in vote gets so high, and seeing the quality of "After", I won't complain

My thoughts exactly! I voted for it.

Huge difference when you compare to the winner... but for a write-in-vote, sure it is an accomplishment.

Man, I honestly voted for Nominon's Monumentomb was the best death metal release this year, and it recieved less than 10 votes

I can't believe Nevermore won best thrash album. I mean, Obsidian Conspiracy was solid, but in my opinion no where near Overkill's, Sodom's, or Dark Angel's (who I voted for). In fact, out of the 10, Nevermore was probably my least favorite album.

For the Hard Rock category, anyone who hasn't checked out Negative's Neon should. I can't believe it didn't win, well actually, I can, but in my opinion they should have haha.

Overrall though, my biggest complaint is in the progressive metal category. My favorite album of the year, Nature|Existence by Echoes barely topped 50 votes. In my opinion, this is one of the strongest debut albums in a long time, and is the band that I most look forward to in the future.

Anyways, thank you MetalStorm staff, I have discovered several albums I otherwise would have missed. Most notably:

Freedom Call: Legend of the Shadowking, Heidevolk: Uit Oude Grond, and Helevorn: Forthcoming Displeasures.

Cheers, and once again, THANK YO

I may be wrong, but the thing is, as a fan of Fleshgod Apocaylpse, "Mafia" is an EP rather than a full-length album

Written by InfernoxDeath on 01.03.2011 at 06:28

I may be wrong, but the thing is, as a fan of Fleshgod Apocaylpse, "Mafia" is an EP rather than a full-length album

we have nominated EPs on occasion...

Congratulations to the prom kings and queens! I don't think I've ever wanted an album NOT to come out more than Time...

but thanks to the staff for giving Shaolin Death Squad a chance among the nominees, my personal favorite (although I do enjoy Orphaned Land's latest, I can't hate)

An enjoyable discovery of new music, which is what it's all about. I actually didn't even cast a vote in a lot of categories just because I ran out of time to give an honest opinion...